In an effort to roundup the latest international news and either give props to or call out the movers and shakers, I am introducing a new segment calledBouquets and Brickbats. I’ll try to do this on a bi-monthly, or at least monthly basis, but since this is the first ever installment of the section, I’ll try and cover as much ground as I can and recap anything that has occurred in recent memory.

Bouquets

APJ Abdul Kalam and ISRO for dreaming big and carrying the aspirations of a billion people to the moon, at a fraction of the cost of other lunar missions.

Anil Kumble and Saurav Ganguly for serving Indian cricket, first as upstarts full of talent, and later on as senior statesmen. All the very best for your future endeavors.

Barack Obama for becoming the president-elect of the US. I may have drank the Kool-Aid, but know that the immediate problems facing the US are too large for any one 4-term administration to effectively tackle.

Jawaharlal Nehru for understanding the importance of economic socialism in a country plagued by poverty and inequality. India’s socialist apparatus stood us in good stead as the world turned upside-down by corporate greed and laissez faire governance.

Brickbats

Lt-Col. Purohit and his ilk for the senseless murder of civilians in Malegaon and elsewhere in revenge attacks against terrorism. Their victims weren’t of any one particular religion and revenge attacks don’t accomplish anything: India still bleeds.

Congress-I’s top dogs for claiming that they are against nepotism when their leader and her children lead the party because of their association to a dynasty and not because of any perceived superior leadership skills.

Matthew Hayden for his “third world country” comment. India is a third world country, and we’re happy to regain the Border-Gavaskar trophy, but when the Indians lose in Australia they don’t bitch around, pointing out that they lost because of the fear of playing in a nation full of deported convicts from England.

“World Leaders” for turning a blind eye to crisis in DR Congo. As Nkunda’s war continues, neither the African Union nor the UN or any international body have been able to do anything to bring the conflict to a close and return some semblance of normalcy in this war ravaged nation.